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IN CHICAGO. 



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^A SOUVENIRS^ 



Being an Recount at the Prsssntatinn nf a Bust nf UBneral 

Bhevidan to the Union I/BtBran Club, of Chicago, 

at Central Music Hall, May 5, 1384. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK, AND ADDRESSES MADE ON THAT OCCASION BY 

PR(JFESSt)R DAVID SWING, GENERAL JULIUS WHITE AND 

BISHOP SAMUEL FALLOWS. 



Presented, with the Compliments of the Veterans, to their Friends. 



^^eK^DAN ;v;^^^ 



^ IN CHICAGO. 



^A SOUVENIR.^ 



EEing an Recount of the PrBSBntatian of a Bust of GsuBral 

Sheridan to the Union lletETan Club, of Chicago, 

at Central Music Hall, May 5, 1BB4, 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK, AND ADDRESSES MADE ON THAT OCCASION BY 

PROFESSOR DAVID SWING, GENERAL JULIUS WHITE AND 

BISHOP SAMUEL FALLOWS. 



Presented, with the Compliments of the Veterans, to their Friends. 



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change 



^^^^-^ Biblica] i^^ 
'^^e IS, 11(20 



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^^^HE succession of Lieutenant General Philip H. Sheridan to the com- 
mand of the Army of the United States, with Head-quarters at Wash- 
ington City D. C, deprived Chicago of one of her most honored and 
popular citizens. 

A residence of many years in Chicago, as Commander of tlie Military 
Division of the Missouri, had endeared him to her people, who keenly regret- 
ted his departure. 

Several of General Sheridan's friends desiring to compliment their 
most distinguished associate, suggested that the General's portrait bo 
secured as a souvenir of esteemed friendship; and all being members of the 
Union Veteran Ckib of Chicago, it was further suggested that the portrait be 
presented to that organization, many of whose members had followed the 
General in his brilliant campaigns. A committee was therefore constituted, 
consisting of the following named gentlemen: 

Comrade William H. Bolton, Chairman, 
Comrade John L. Manning, Secretary. 
Comrade James A. Sexton. Comrade Julius White. 

Martin Beem. " Jacob Gross. 

'• A. L. Chetlain. " James E. Stuart. 

W. S. Scribner. '• William P. Rend. 

Jacob S. CuRTiss. " George T. Burroughs. 

" Charles A. Dibble. ■• Samuel E. Gross. 

William H. Reed. " H. A. Burt. 

William E. Strong. '• John L. Thompson. 

Joseph Stockton. •• W. N. Alley. 

L. W. Perce. " Charles Catlin. 

Maurice J. McGrath. ■ Ed H. Castle. 

John L. Beveridge. •' Julius C. Wintermeyer. 

Canute R. Matson. • Calvin Durand. 

Seth F. Hanchett. • Bradford Hancock. 

Robert W. Smith. •• Spencer S. Kimbell. 

Joseph B. Leake. • William H. Harper. 

Hon. F. W. Palmer. " James Gleghorn. 

" C. B. Farwell. Hon. Noah E. Gary. 



After due consideration, the committee reported in favor of a heroic bust 
in Carrara marble, and Mr. Howard Kretschmar, tlie sculptor, was invited to 
execute the commission. 

Notwithstanding the many calls on the attention of General Sheridan, 
consequent on the transfer of Headquarters to Washington City, he grace- 
fully assented to the request of the committee to give sittings, and was soon 
most amiably interested in the progress of the work. Before the General's 
departure, the clay model was finished and viewed by his family and friends, 
wdio pronounced the work more tlian satisfactory. In March last, Mr. Kretsch- 
mar notified the committee that the work was completed, and the finished 
marble was duly inspected and accepted. 

The bust was unveiled and formally presented to the Veteran Club on the 
evening of May 5th, at Central Music Hall, in the presence of an immense 
audience of ladies and gentlemen. The parquette was occupied by the Vet- 
erans. 

The bust rested upon a handsome pedestal in the center of the platform, 
and over jt was di'aped an elegant silk flag. Two silk flags, one the Stars and 
Stripes, and the other a blue banner, both the property of the Veteran Club 
and inscribed with mottoes, hung at the side. 

A military band in brilliant scarlet uniforms, occupied the back part of 
the stage. When the "Assembly" — executed by two Veteran buglers, Messrs, 
Gould and Purinton — was sounded, the members of the presentation and re- 
ception committees, and the speakers entei-ed upon the rostrum, and took 
their seats. 

The band then played "America," after which Col. Wm. H. Bolton 
Chairman of the presentation committee, called the meeting to order and 
introduced as chairman of the meeting, Col. James A. Sexton, the President 
of the Veteran Club. 

The following, among other letters^ were then read by the secretary of 
the club, and received with great applause: 

LETTER FROM GENERAL SHERIDAN. 

Headquarters Army of the United States, Washington, April 28.— 
My Dear Colonel; I have the honor to acknowledge tlie receipt of your invita- 
tion to attend the ceremonies at Central Music Hall, Chicago, on May 5, next, 
upon the occasion of the unveiling of the bust executed by Mr. Howard 
Kretschmar, the sculptor. 

I assure you it would give me great jileasure if I could be present, 
but I regret to say I find my engagements are sucli that I cannot be with you 
on the evening named. Please convey to the Committee of the Union Veteran 
Club my thanks for their kind remembrance of me and believe me always 
sincerely yours, P. H. Sheridan, Lieutenant General. 

Colonel John L. Manning, Secretary. 



Cetter from secretary lin(:;oln. 

War Department, Washington, April 2G, 1884. —Dear Sir: Please accept 
my thanks for the invitation of the Union Veteran Clnh to be present at the 
unveiling ceremonies of the bust of General Sheridan, to take i)lace at Chica- 
go on the evening of May 5. It is not possible for me to be present; but if I 
could be at home on that day, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to 
show by my presence the regard and admiration in which I hold the gal- 
lant soldier who by the lapse of years has become the senior of all veterans 
remaining in active service. I am, very truly yours, Robert T. Lincoln. 
Colonel John L. Manning, Secretary Union Veteran Club. 

THE marble. 

At this point Colonel Sexton withdrew the flag from the marble bust 
upon which a strong calcium light was thrown. The audience burst into ap- 
plause, and the veterans led in three ringing cheers. The band played ' 'Hail 
to the Chief." 

The bust is cut from a remarkably fine piece of the purest Carrara mar- 
ble. It is of heroic size. The head is turned to the left, the chin proudly 
elevated. The expression conveyed is keen and aggressive. The poise of the 
head and general characteristics represent the ideal warrior. The drapery 
shows the General's uniform. One shoulder-strap is covered by the broad 
sash, which is also utilized to array into harmonious groups what would other- 
wise be a monotonous arrangement of the buttons. Of all General Sheridan's 
numerous decorations and badges, his own badge has been selected to serve as 
a corrective of what would otherwise, on the Atlantic expanse of the General's 
chest, be a parallelism of shadows and etfects. The treatment in modeling 
has been in keeping with the subject. While no detail of form is neglected, 
there is a breadth and simplicity in keeping with the heroic character of the 
work. The aim of Mr. Kretschmar has been to produce an ideal warrior, not 
simply the features of General Sheridan. But with this high aim permeating 
his work, then we have not only Sheridan's features in perfection, but shining 
through and surrounding the block of pure white marble the sculptor's ideal 
— his inspiration. 



Prof. Swing's Presentation Address. 

Immediately following the music, the chairman introduced Professor 
David Swing, who said : 

The Committee of Arrangements asked me to make what is called 
the ''presentation speech," on this happy occasion — happy, because 
our city j)ossesses such a body of noblemen as the Union Veteran 
Club; happy, because we have such a sculptor as the author of this 
work; happy, because we have had a General so worthy of this 
marble, and of this public unveiling. The artist himself should have 
assumed this presentation task, but the Veteran Club estimated so 
highly this image of their beloved General, that they desired the re- 
marks to be made by some one who could speak some words regarding 
Howard Kretschmar, the sculptor, as well as regarding the image he 
has so faithfully produced. 

A sculptor journeying toward Chicago must feel much like old 
Abraham felt out in the wilderness; going he knows not whither 
exactly, but hoping for a city that might, at least, be willing to have 
some divine foundation, but with hopes greatly clouded, and walking 
chiefly by longings of soul. So far as sight was concerned, there 
were ships, roads, warerooms, shops and much people, but when the 
thoughts turned toward the products of the chisel or the brush, the 
eyesight was of little value, and our young and gifted artist must 
have approached our metropolis, led, like the old saint, by faith only. 

But the same spirit of longing and ambition led this artist, when 
young, to a greater city than our Chicago — even to glorious old 
Eome. Having studied for a short time in Paris, he entered the 
Koyal Art Academy in Munich, and for about one year he studied 
carefully the anatomy of man, and drew and carved and modeled 
from the antique and from life. After studying models and 
master-pieces in Austria and in Italy at large, he went to Rome to 
settle down regularly at the great work of mastering a noble, fine 
art. Here he remained three years. In that old home of the beauti- 



fill, Mr. Kretschmar produced liis first ideal work of life-size in 
marble. It was entitled "Painting tlie Lily." It was purcliased by 
a gentleman now living in San Francisco; but so excellent was the 
idea and so attractive the execution, that a copy was secured by the 
Pennsylvania Art Academy in Philadelphia.^ 

From Eome, the place for study, our artist came back to America, 
as the place to apply his skill. Why should not this mighty country 
be not only the shop of the merchant and the trader, but also the 
shop and studio of the sculptor? Here are mind, soul, heart, ediica- 
tion and wealth! AVhy cannot such a new world accept and cherish 
a fine art, or all the fine arts? 

The fact that the United States looks over the sea for works of art, 
is partly the result of the fact that our gifted sons going thither to 
study, have remained there. They were the first ones to say "America 
does not appreciate beauty." But the real truth is the artists were 
the first ones to catch this foreign fever. Had Powers and Story and 
their gifted companions returned to their native cities, the- might 
have prevented our eyes from looking over the sea. But we cannot 
much blame the artists who were afraid to risk the support of a new 
world — they would indeed have transformed our people into lovers of 
art, but the early toilers would have died in poverty in the first years 
of this new education; yet those martyrs would have made our cities 
rival those of Europe in this form of intellectual pursuit and hajipi- 
ness, and now European eyes would have been looking westward to 
see what marbles or canvasses were rising up in greatness in the 
American Hemisphere. G-reece, jealous of her great sons, used to 
forbid them to go abroad. Athens must not go out to find the world; 
the world must come to Athens. Our old Congress would have 
helped the people much ]iad it sent many gifted singers, painters and 
sculptors abroad to study and then compelled them to return in five 
years and ply their art in their native land; but our government is 
one of permission only, not of compulsion. 

Howard Kretschmar made as brilliant an entrance into his artist life 
as was made by Powers, or Story, or Ives or Meade. The temptations 
to remain in the old world were great; but in the meanwhile our 
country has passed up out of infancy, and Mr. Kretschmar comes 
back, not simply to this continent, but to the central city of the 



land, where the piles of lumber and wheat, and the droves of stock 
and the masts of ships are supposed to hide forever any blocks of 
marble, however finely chiselled, and pictures, however skillfully 
jiainted. In other cities of the nation he has cut in marble the forms 
of many public men, and to-night, we sec him here in oar city, in his 
youth and talent, as proud of his Sheridan in marble as the nation is 
proud of its Sheridan in the flesh. 

Sculpture is a limited, but a great art. It resembles music m its 
inability to deal in low ideas. The painter and the poet can portray 
common passions, but music and sculpture spiritualize. They deal 
m noble generalities. So refined and spiritual is sculpture, that it 
does not appeal to so large a number of mortals as can listen to a song 
or a poem; but to the hearts of those who can contemplate virtues, it 
speaks with a language full of eloquence. It is a transfiguration, 
always, rather than a perfect picture. It does not deal in flesh tints, 
not in the black or blue eye, or in the auburn or raven hair, but, 
passing by these accidents, it catches the colorless features of the soul, 
and gives us alj that is eternal in the nature of man. Sculpture is 
no more a rival of painting than of architecture or music. It is a 
distinct art. The painter attempts to make a fac simile of his 
subject, while sculpture is more like an oration or a poem — an effort 
to gather up the mental and spiritual attributes of an Apollo, or a 
Venus, or a Moses, or a Minerva. It deals in one color, white or black 
or brown, because tints or colors would ruin its spirit. A statue 
painted to life would be outside of the art, because sculpture loves 
the qualities that suffer no change. It is that high study of mind 
and spirit to which vestments, fabrics, silks, satins and purple robes 
are as mere dust; and therefore, for the most part, all drapery falls 
away and the divine form stands forth in natiu-al symmetry. But of 
late generations, this art has risen more and more toward the glory of 
the head and face, as though thought and emotion were the divine 
qualities of the ideals, both upon Mount Olympus and in the homes 
of mortals. 

No art demands of its devotees so much imagination and so much 
appreciation of refined excellence. The snow-white outline of a form 
is given and the beholder must fill up the drama of life. The cold 
lips must be clothed with language, the hand must be full of friend- 



9 

ship, the heavy bosom must heave with breath, the form must be 
endowed with a soul. In the great European galleries, the multitude 
hasten through the rooms sacred to statuary to reach those of the 
painter, because in the art full of colors, the imagination has a lighter 
task to 2)crform. The jn'oblem is solved for each visitor. Each 
noble iiiece of statuary stands waiting for the mental life and the 
creative power of each passer-by. Only the most awakened and cul- 
tured will pause and hear the marble lips pour forth language. It 
required the enthusiastic soul of Pygmalion to turn the, ivory statue 
into a living form, of which fable, perhaps, the moral is that statuary 
will express all its meaning only to those who can give to its vague 
charms a certain devotion. But without possessing the power of 
Pygmalion, the American mind can rise to the height of sculpture at 
easily as to the height of Beethoven's music. 

Sculpture is more spiritual in America than it was in Greece, but 
in all periods it has been the art that has garnered up in marble or 
brass, ivory or even m gold, the beautiful of deity, of woman, of man. 
That it might deal in the permanent, it has made its subject sit or 
stand in peace. If Hercules is the theme, he is not busy at his twelve 
labors, but he is in all his powers ready, if need be, for twelve more 
tremendous tasks. If the Apollo is the subject, he is taken away 
from his battle with Python, and is pictured in that power which has 
mastered a monster and which stands ready for new combats, when 
the age may call for illustrious service. But all this turmoil must by 
back of the artist or far before him. Winkelmann says of the Apollo 
of the Vatican: "'A perennial springtime, like that which reigns in 
the happy fields of Elysium, clothes with lovable youth the beautiful 
body. In order to feel the merit of this master-piece, we must be 
penetrated with intellectual beauty, and become, if possible, the 
creatures of a celestial spirit which circulates like a rich vapor in all 
parts of the admirable figure. Disdain is ujion his lips; indignation 
indeed ascends to his eyebrows, but an unchangeable serenity is upon 
his forehead, and his eye is full of sweetness, as though the Muses 
were caressing him." Thus, also, the Moses of Angelo is divested of 
all liis troubles with Aaron and the complaining multitude, and sit- 
ting as though upon a throne, he looks as though his forehead was 
full of l^ws for nations, and his soul full of the Jehovah of his race. 



10 

Thus sculpture is the glory of man, not gathered up iu a poem, 
nor a biography, nor in a history, but m a single piece of marble. It 
is not a photograph of a friend or mortal, but a true dream of one 
when the dreamer is himself in an exalted state. In the vision of 
^neas, the absent Crousa came back to him a little larger than life: 
" Visa mihi ante oculos et not a viajo?' imago.''' 

Thus is this art a certain, delicate analysis of persons — a study of 
all those qualities which compose that strangest of earth called 
character. In this marble before us this evening, the battle field is 
far away, the weariness and anxiety of the heart while cannons are 
roaring and while the nation is in jieril are excluded, and we are in 
the presence of a half heroic form which can easily recall a great task 
and inspire for a great future. The intellectual power, the symmetry 
of forces, the decision of the will, the tenderness of the sentiments, 
are all here and are made by this stone imperishable. Of the virtues 
of this hero a true soldier will now speak. In the name of Howard 
Kretschmar, the sculptor, I deliver to the Union Veteran Club this 
marble image of a man loved by the whole nation, General Sheridan. 



The Acceptance. 



The speech accepting the bust for the Club was made by General Julius 
White, who said: 

Mr. Kretschmar, on behalf of the committee of gentlemen upon 
whose commission you have executed this bust of General Sheridan, 
and of the Union Veteran Club, who are to receive it, it is my pleasant 
duty to express the gratitude they feel toward you, for this faithful 
representation of one whom we all admire and respect — for this 
admirable work of art, which it is not flattery to say is from the hand 
of a master. And here let me convey to you and to the audience, 
the opinion of the work which General Sheridan himself entertains. 



11 



GEX. SIIERIDAX S LETTER. 



Headquarters Army of the United States, 
Washington D. C, April 10, 1884. 
My dear General: 

Your letter of April 13th. and photographs of the marble bust of 
myself executed by the sculptor, Mr. Howard Kretschmar, have been 
received. Having seen the clay model, and having heard from 
friends, who have seen the finished marble, nothing but praise of Mr. 
Kretschmar's success in this piece of statuary, I accept with pleasure 
these photographs, as evidence of that gentleman's high ability and 
skill, and beg that you will convey to him my appreciation of what 
all assure me is an excellent likeness. Very truly yours, 

P. H. Sheridan, Lieut. General. 
To Gen. Julius White, Chicago, HI. 

Some of the most celebrated worKs m sculpture, universally admired 
for their exquisite delineation of the perfect human form, are wholly 
exempt from criticism in other respects, as they represent physical 
power or beauty only, not individuality or character. 

Others, which are intended to denote passion, dignity or intellec- 
tual power, are modeled upon conventional or classic forms — notably 
the Greek or Roman — and are wholly ideal, representing no individu- 
ality except as they may be said to indicate the form and general 
features of a race. 

But in this work the artist has not been permitted to ignore either 
the real or ideal. It has been required of him to produce a correct 
likeness of a living man — of one who is known to many thousands — 
whose features, whether in repose or illuminated by the genial glow 
of his good nature, constitute a familiar object. 

More than this, far beyond and above the mere portraiture of the 
physique, it has been required of him to delineate the mental charac- 
teristics which have so greatly distinguished his subject, and which 
are familiar to all the world; to produce the typical man of war — the 
perfect ideal soldier; for the Navarre, the Marshal Ney, the Murat of 
history, or the most accomplished knight of romance ever dr awn by 
the masterly hand of the ''Wizard of the North," could not more 
worthily sit for this distinction than our Sheridan, who, as a field 
marshal, is the peer of any soldier, of any age or of any country. 

That Mr. Kretschmar has produced a work answering such severe 
requirements, is amply attested in the hitherto unmatched, if not 



«iatchless, bust of General Sheridan now in our presence, which may 
safely challenge ths closest scrutiny of his most intimate friend — 
presenting, as it does, not only the physical, but the intellectual man 
as far and as fully as it seems possible to express mental organism in 
sculpture. 

Impulsive, aggressive and swift to act, General Sheridan is, oiever- 
theless, considerate, and as a subordinate always recognizes obedience 
to orders as the paramount duty of a soldier. In the absence of 
orders, or when entrusted with discretion in modifying or wholly 
discarding them, he is bold, daring and self-reliant, but never 
reckless. 

An educated tactician^ he seems not to depend largely upon pre- 
scribed formations or evolutions of troops on the battle field, but 
rather uj)on rapidity of movement, suddenness and momentum of 
attack, and making the most of victory when achieved. The formula 
by which he seems to be governed is his own, and, condensed, is 
substantially "whip the enemy and capture his force, his camp and 
artillery." Making war in earnest, he is never vindictive or cruel, 
never transgresses the laws of Avar or humanity, and never destroys 
life or property unnecessarily. 

A disciplinarian, he is no martinet. He is more than a discijalin- 
arian — he is an inspiration to his men as well as an instructor. He 
was the first to appreciate and properly utilize the splendid material 
of which American cavalry is composed. He trained and infused 
with his own spirit the brilliant school comprising Custer and Merritt 
and Wilson and Averill and Forsyth and a host of others, who no 
longer serving as mere scouts and skirmishers, were wont to come 
crashing down upon the enemy's flanks, participating as fully and as 
efficiently as any other arm of the service, in the most hotly contested 
battles. 

Crowning and dignifying his other admirable qualities, is the 
unselfish devoted patriotism by which he is ever actuated. When, 
where and to whom has he ever intimated that liis services, 
brilliant as they have been, deserved promotion? When did he ever 
complain because of assignment to difficult or hazardous duty? When 
has he ever failed to perform his whole duty because of a real or 
imaginary wrong to himself or to a brother officer, however dear to 
him that officer might be? Phillip H. Sheridan never had a friend, 



13 

ill or out of the army, wlio Avas dearer to liim than his country. Thai 
immacuhite marble, emblem of purity as it is, is not purer in its com- 
position than the self-abnegating, patriotic devotion to duty which 
has governed his military life, from the day of his commission as a 
second Lieutenant, down to that day when a grateful people saw him 
assume his place at the head of the army — an illustrious successor to 
illustrious predecessors. 

The history of his country, which Sheridan has illustrated by his 
long, unbroken series of victories in the cause of liberty and union, 
will depict and transmit to posterity the salient features in his char- 
acter as an officer, which have been very briefly and imperfectly 
alluded to here, while this admirable work, wrought by your hands, 
Mr. Kretschmar, so long as it remains unharmed by the hand of time 
or disaster, supplementing and illuminating history, will ever present 
to the beholder a truthful impression of the model soldier that he is — 
the incarnation of lofty patriotism, daring valor and resistless energy. 
So long as the work remains, so long may your name remain, as it 
deserves, associated with that of your illustrious subject, as is that of 
Gilbert Stuart with the name of Washington. 

In formally accepting this valued work as we now do, I again 
express our profound gratitude, with the earnest wish and confident 
hope that the love you bear for your noble profession, and the genius 
it has awakened, may be appreciated at their worth, and secure to 
you that eminence among the renowned in the realm of Art, to which 
we believe you are justly entitled. 



At the conclusion of General White's address, Mr. Kretschmar, the artiu, 
was called for, and, spoke as follows : 

Ladies and Gentlemen: You will pardon me, doubtless, if I plead some 
embarrassment at this call to address you. Especially after what has been 
said, so more than kindly said, by our friends Professor Swing and 
General White. Men of my profession express themselves by work rather 
than in words. It is proper, however, that I should at least endeavor to ex- 
press to you my profound appreciation of this compliment. And I speak, I 
am sure, not for myself alone, but for all sculptors, all painters and all lovers of 
art, when acknowledging in your graceful tribute of i-espect for Genera) Sheri- 
dan, the honor done also to art work. It is an evidence, one of many evi- 
dences around us, that the men who have builded this magnificent city, intend / 



14 

that it shall l^e not only great, but beautiful; the splendid home of strong men 
and loA-ely women. 

Mr. Kretschmar retired amid great applause. 

The band played "Tenting To-night," and " St. Bernard's Echo," was 
given on the bugles. ' 



Bishop Fallows' Oration. 

Bishop Fallows was then introduced and said: 

It has been said "there is nothing mankind so severely revenge as 
their own inflated imagination. If they have set a man too high, 
they never forgive him for their own injustice. The Athenians ostra- 
cised their citizens because their own folly had made them too popu- 
lar, and they dreaded the effects of their previous admiration." The 
American people are not given to an excess of admiration of any- 
thing or anybody. A phrenological examination of the national cra- 
nium shows a great depression where the bump of reverence ought 
to be, therefore nobody is in much danger of being sent into exile 
because his good qualities have been extravagantly set forth. 

We meet to-night not to unduly exalt, but to give this simple 
meed of praise to a man whose very name thrills not only the soldiers 
who served under him, but the whole nation, whose honor he so 
gloriously maintained. In praising him, wo are really praising the 
brave armies he commanded, and the great American people who 
put those armies under his leadership. And those armies and that 
people deserve the most glowing tribute that language can convey, or 
memorial express. 

The name and fame of the distinguished soldier, whose excel- 
lent bust in marble has been unveiled before us to-night, will be for- 
ever connected with the establishment and develoj>ment of the new 
American nation, which has risen before th3 astonished gaze of the 
world. I say a new nation, for a new spirit of American nationality 
has been developed by our stupendous civil conflict. Heterogeneous 
peoples have been welded into one homogeneous whole. That 
mighty struggle is an answer to a thousand questions of doubt as to 
the future stability and integrity of the Eepublic. 



15 

It is an acknowledged fact that one of the most important sources 
of national sympathy and unity is that of historical reminiscences, 
' 'preserved by traditions, or monuments, or historic records." An 
English poet declares it to be enough to satisfy the ambition of a com- 
mon man, "that he is a countryman of Wolfe and speaks the language 
of Chatham." Full as the bra<ung atmosphere is of ozone, is the little 
isle of Albion with rich, uniting historical suggestions and appeals. 
The dullest English mind catches the inspiration of a national 
feeling as he surveys them, and the most stolid mind feels the rising 
of a national pride in their presence. What thrilling associations 
spring up as the subject of the Queen treads the aisles and naves and 
corridors of Westminster Abbey. But in that abbey are the tombs, 
g,nd monuments, and busts of men, who not only fought against the 
common enemies of England, and extended her power and influence 
round the globe, but of the men who drenched her soil with the blood 
of fratricidal foes. They sleep together, or are commemorated to- 
gether now, in that magnificent mausoleum of her mighty dead. 

A little over thirty years ago, on a lofty hill overlooking the 
blue Danube, was opened the famous Walhalla, the grand national 
temple consecrated to the memory of celebrated Germans. The King 
of Bavaria, who had conceived the idea of its erection, presided at 
the consecration. Already had been gathered within its walls the 
busts of one hundred and fifty eminent men. In his address on the 
occasion, the King, profoundly moved by his surroundings, said: 

''May it serve to develop and consolidate German nation- 
ality. May all Germans, to whatever race they belong, feel that they 
have one common country — a country of which they may be proud; 
and may each individual labor according to his faculties, to promote 
the welfare and honor of his country." 

No Westminster Abbey or Walhalla was to be found on our 
shores. We had a few historical reminiscences connected with the 
landing of the Pilgrims, and with the Revolutionary war, and but one 
commanding national monument — the simple, sublime granite shaft 
which towers aloft on Bunker Hill. These, however, meant little to 
the millions who were pouring into our midst from other lands. 
The event, even which the monument commemorated, seemed to 
have been forgotten by at least one English traveler, who was told 



IG 

by the guide that this was the place where Warren fell. Adjusting 
his eye-glasses, he carefully scanned its altitude, and then, all uncon- 
scious of any affinity with Mark Twain, anxiously asked, ''Did it 
seriously hurt him. when he fell?" 

But to those who did know its meaning, to the English-born 
citizen and to the naturalized German, it spoke- mainly of English 
oppression and of hireling Hessians. 

The war for the Union wrought a wonderful change. Six times 
as many English-born soldiers fought for the preservation of the 
nation as fought against the American Colonies during the Revolu- 
tionary war. Six times as many German soldiers fought in the same 
glorious Union cause as were enlisted in these Hessian regiments, 
sent over by venal landgraves to help England crush out American 
Independence. The Irishmen in the Union ranks were five times as 
many in number as all the men, women and children together withi;^ 
the bounds of this imperial State of Illinois when it was admitted into 
the sisterhood of States. Five hundred thousand Englishmen, Scotch- 
men, Canadians, Germans, Irishmen, Scandinavians, Swedes, and 
other nationalities, kept step to the music of the Union. 

The number of foreign born soldiers was equal to five-sevenths 
of the entire Confederate force. 

In other words one-fourth of the whole Union army was composed 
of soldiers who first saw the light in other lands than this. Add .to 
these the number who, like General Sheridan, were the immediate 
descendants of foreign born parents, and you will find they will make 
at least one-half of the men in arms for the salvation of the Republic. 

What does this import? It means that the civil war has done 
infinite good in settling the conflict between the different races 
seeking our hospitable shores. Nationality — a broad, comprehensive 
American nationality — has been won through the common toils and 
sufferings and sacrifices of these various peoples. 

Literature is joined with monuments and historical reminiscences 
as a potent factor in securing needed unity, and this needed liter- 
ature in our own country the war has given us. 

However well intentioned may be the suggestion or the design 
to eliminate from the history of the United States, as studied in our 
public schools, the account of the civil war, we cannot afford 



seriously to entertain a thought in that direction. I know that the 
desire lying back of the feeler just thrown out in our city on that 
subject, is to bring about as speedily as possible a full reconciliation 
between the North and the South, But we cannot conveniently 
drop out of history, the record of a coniiict that shook the globe, 
and wrought the most momentous social and political changes in our 
land. Th memories of the brave boys who fought against eacli 
other are not so treacherous that they can forget whal they did on 
some of the bloodiest battle fields of history. Reconciliation never 
will come by ignoring, but by accepting the situation. The prin- 
ciples for which the Union armies contended are as permanent as the 
Republic itself. It would be the most stupendous act of historical 
hari-kari ever known, for the North and the South to attempt to 
take out of the national record, in order that the children of the 
Republic may know nothing of it, the history of the struggle whicli 
emancipated four millions of men and demonstrated to the world 
that we were one nation. 

Keep forever before our youth the heroic deeds of the men who 
saved the Republic, and those of the equally heroic deeds of the 
misguided men who sought to disrupt it. Add, in the successive 
editions of your common school histories, if you choose, that hun- 
dreds of Confederate officers, since the war has closed, have been 
members of the national Congress. Relate how the gallant heroes 
who opposed each other in that terrible, decisive battle of Gettys- 
burg, have been arm in arm over the fateful field, to find out the 
exact location of their regiments, brigades and divisions, so that the 
simple truth relating to the conflict might be told; narrate how, 
when the appeal was made in Richmond and in New York for a 
home for disabled Confederate soldiers, Corporal Tanner, the 
eloquent United States District Attorney for Brooklyn, representing 
scores of thousands of Union soldiers, stumped about on his wooden 
legs and made the most glowing effort of his life, in order that the 
required help might be given. Let it be told, and I hope it may 
soon be told, that an American Westminster Abbey or "Walhalla has 
been erected to the memory of our distinguished dead, where, ranged 
within, may be found the sculptured busts and statues of Washing- 
ton and Franklin, of Adams and Jefferson, of Webster and Clay, 



18 

of Lincoln and Garfield, of McPherson and Eawlins, of Thomas and 
Hooker, of Stonewall Jackson and Polk, of Lee and Stephens. 
Long may the time be delayed when a splendid bust like this shall be 
given one of the most conspicuous and honored places in that 
national temple, to commemorate the services of a departed Sheridan. 
This costly and grateful tribute of the accomplished and rising 
artist who has presented it, this great gathering of the enthusiastic 
friends of the commemorator and the commemorated, but faintly 
attest the esteem in which we hold him who helped give a renewed 
lease of life to the Republic, for whose existence he so gallantly 
fought and who so valiantly struggled, that the United States might 
forever speak in the voice of sonorous thunder to the nations of the 
earth, the mandates of a free and a progressive people, instead of 
uttering some trembling, superannuated remonstrance in the cracked 
and squeaking treble of a dozen or twenty discordant States. 

In estimating the life and services of General Sheridan, we must 
take into account several things. Men are but human, and with 
two millions of men in the field, each one of whom had the capacity 
latent or developed, for a major-general, a profuse display of human 
nature might be reasonably expected; and if expected among the 
men, it must inevitably be displayed among the Generals themselves. 
And when we think of the immense territory over which our armies 
were stretched, the difficulty the authorities at Washington expe- 
rienced in grasping the details of the situation, the want of previous 
military training among most of the officers, the natural impatience 
in subordinating will and judgment by men to eacn other, who were 
equals at home, the absence of unity of purpose, the obstacles in the 
way of concert of action, the prejudices, the antagonisms, the 
jealousies, that in the nature of things must exist, we can appreciate, 
to some extent at least, the tremendous problem to be solved among 
ourselves, how best to carry on and end the war for the Union, and 
also the difficulties before our Generals in winning enduring dis- 
tinction. 

It may be true of poets that they are born but not made, but 
soldiers of commanding qualities must be both born and made. 
Whatever their inborn genius, they must, on the field of conflict and 
amidst the alarms of war, show the stuff of which they are composed. 



19 

By a process of evolution, out of all the mighty mass engaged in 
that most momentous struggle, came the throe men, each unique 
and incomparable in his sphere, who, of all others, are to stand forth 
in history as the renowned representatives of the Union army. 
Grant, with the final unconditional-surrender grip of supreme 
military authority, never loosened until the Southern Confederacy 
ceased to breathe; Sherman, the master strategist and sweeping 
captain of war, and Sheridan, "the incarnation of battle," and the 
synonym of military success. 

From the physical point of view, Sheridan is a small man, but 
all compact of iron sinews and nerves of steel. The famous Dr. 
Watts was a very small man. Some one who met him for the first 
time, involuntarily drew back, saying in surprise, "Is this the great 
Dr. Watts?" The poet just as involuntarily replied on the spot: 

"If I could reach from pole to pole. 

And grasp the ocean in my span, 
I must be measured by my soul, 

The mind's the standard of the man." 

We can say, in the same strain, with another poet, of the hero 
we justly extol to-night: 

" Tho' not a giant, he is learned and wise; 
And wisdom compensates for size." 

Short though he is, the enemy found his matchless military capa- 
bility to be too long for them. It placed them in the position of the 
gruff teamster, who refused, one cold winter's day, on one of our 
highways, to give half the road to a man in a cutter, muffled up 
to his chin, and almost buried in a buffalo robe, whose name was, wo 
might say. Long Jones. Slowly throwing off his wraps, he began 
gradually to rise. Higher and higher and higher he towered, until 
the astonished fellow before him cried out: "Good heavensi if there's 
any more of you to get up, please sit down and I'll give you all the 
road ." 

"How much do you weigh?" was the question, you remember, 
asked of a small man. "One hundred and thirty pounds is my legular 
weight," was the answer, "but when I am mad, I weigli a ton." Sheri- 
dan was "mad" all the time. 

General Sheridan was the antithesis of the preacher, (when in 



20 

the heat of battle he was sometimes decidedly antithetical in the 
style of his orders, to the preacher,) of whom Prof. Stuart said: "He 
rather thought two and two made four, but he was not quite sure of 
it." There were some generals like that preacher They rather 
thought, as they sat on a log, that, perhaps, on the whole, all things 
being considered, if the proper movements were made at the right 
time, there was a remote possibility that the enemy might be whip- 
ped. With such generals, Sheridan had no patience, and for them 
no room in his command. 

His boundless enthusiasm, his unshaken self-reliance, his thor- 
ough comprehension of what was to to be done, and what he knew 
he could do, made General Grant say to him in the most memor 
able, la,conic military order ever issued: "Go in." And he did "go 
in," until every armed foe went out. 

It was the famous saying of Cajsar: "Wise men anticipate possi- 
ble difficulties, and decide beforehand what they will do if occasions 
arise." No general excelled Sheridan in argus-eyed watchfulness 
and prudent prevision. Studying every weak point of the enemy, he 
acted in the guarding of his own command, as if that weak point 
were to be found in his own lines. His movements were not of the 
hap-hazard, slap-dash style, which some of his daring raids might 
seem to indicate. I doubt if General Sheridan had a superior in the 
army, in making a close and comprehensive calculation of the chances 
and complexities of war. No officer had more accurate information 
than he of what was going on in the enemy's lines, or could divine more 
surely what in all human possibility the enemy would do. He set at 
naught the mathematics in which his adversaries so firmly trusted, 
that a straight line is the nearest distance between two given points, 
and proved to them again and again that the longest way round 
was the nearest way — to where they were to be found. No general 
in ancient or modern warfare surpassed him in those rapid, brilliant, 
unexpected and effective flank movements, by which he suddenly 
and completely doubled up the enemy in order to straighten him out* 

The lightning flash of his intuitive military genius was followed 
by the lightning flash of action. While other men were thinking 
what was best to be done, he had done it, and then was planning to 
do still more. 



21 

With his quickness of apprehension and promptness in execu- 
tion, there was a fertility of resources which never failed to serve 
him in the most desperate emergency. He was master of all the 
wiles of warfare, as a beautiful coquette of all the weaknesses of her 
admirers' natures. Now he was coyly dallying with the enemy — now 
advancing, now withdrawing, now luring on, now pushing ofiF — until 
the supreme moment had come, and then followed the breaking of 
the enemy's heads, as in the other engagement followed the breaking 
of the victims' hearts. He had the consummate command of his 
faculties when the need was most urgent for them to be thoroughly 
in hand. Amid the ebb and flow of battle, with reverses here and 
successes there, in the very focus of the tempest and storm of the 
engagement, he never lost his head, although he frequently did his 
hat. With the magnilicent passion of battle at white heat burning 
within him, restless as a surging volcano, dashing here and there, as 
though rider and horse were embodied electricity, he was as calm and 
cool at the centre, as one .of the snow-formed lakes in the bosom of 
the Rocky Mountains. He concentrated his energy on the needed 
point, and yet swept the whole field with unfailing vision. 

Disaster only kindled his defiance; reverses simply redoubled 
his resoluteness. Defeat! He never knew what the word meant. 
"Impossible?" said Napoleon; "that is bad French." "Defeat," 
Sheridan would say, "is execrable English." 

General Sheridan was the ideal of a commanding officer in battle. 
Orators and poets, historians and painters, have loved to depict a 
general at the head of his troops, waving his sword and urging on 
his men to victory; but very, very few generals in all history have 
ever realized the ideal, for there are very few generals to be found 
who can present the rare combination of the statics and dynamics of 
warfare, so as to be in one place to command, and yet at all places to 
lead and inspire. Two such generals have there been — Caesar was 
one, and Sheridan the other. 

Bare-headed, in his scarlet cloak, calling his centurions by 
name, the great leader of the Romans rushes to the front and leads 
the attack. Suddenly surprised by the Nervii, his army is thrown 
into confusion. Sixty thousand men throw themselves upon the 
legions unprepared for the onset. Baggage wagons, light troops. 



heavy infantry, are all intermingled. The standards are all huddled 
together. The men are packed so close they cannot use their swords. 
Almost all the oflQcers are killed or wounded. One of the best of 
them, Sextius Baculus, is scarce able to stand. The battle is lost, 
and Ca3sar's reputation clouded! No! no 

The great general hurries from the extreme of the other wing 
just in time to save a rout. Unarmed, he snatches a shield from a 
soldier, and in a voice of thunder bids the centurions open the ranks 
and give the men room to strike. It is done. Consternation gives 
place to coolness, as the soldiers see his calmness and yet passionate 
determination. The old Eoman valor comes back with redoubled 
energy. The men who had given way make amends for their retreat 
by the added fury of their assault, and under the eye of this master 
spirit, they sweep on to victory, until of sixty thousand foes, but five 
hundred remain to tell the story of the disaster. 

Our Sheridan is at Washington in earnest consultation with the 
Secretary of "War. The night before the battle of Cedar Creek, un- 
til far in the night, they are discussing and planning. Suddenly the 
rapid ticking of the telegraph instrument is heard, bringing a mes- 
sage from Winchester — ''There is danger here. Hurry up Sheridan." 

On from the war office dashes the General to the station. The 
engine rushes with him to the Relay House. He leaps to the engine 
on the main track and is off to Harper's Ferry, seventy miles beyond. 
Never did engine make greater speed on that track before. The 
Ferry is reached, and the impatient commander is on another engine 
bound for Winchester. In four hours from the time he left the 
Capitol, he is at his destination. Then at break of day he is mount- 
ed on that brave steed, Eienzi, to be immortalized for his deed on 
that eventful morning. You know the rest — the surprise, the retreat, 
the dashing through the wavering lines of horse and man, the stop- 
ping of the refluent broken human tide; for "the sight of the master 
compelled it to pause." And then, its resistless rush forward with its 
bare-headed commander waving his flashing saber in the front, 
and the rush backward of the enemy in a precipitate rout. Then 
at Pine Forks some of the regiments begin to give way. Sher- 
idan's vigilant eye sees it. He is among them; he is at their head! 
Snatching amid the rain of shot and shell, his colors, that could not 



23 

be disgraced, he bore it riddled with bullets, to victory in the really 
last decisive battle of the war. 

General tSheridan was never guilty of that contemptible mean- 
nesss, which is either the sign of a little mind or the shameful 
infirmity of a great one — the stealing from another of the credit 
which justly belongs to him, although others may have made the 
attempt to rob him of his hard-earned fame. 

No man in the midst of such brilliant successes was less trium- 
phant in the inditing of despatches, or more chary in speaking of his 
glorious victories, so as to bring praise to himself. The nearest to 
anything like gratulation was the terse despatch announcing that 
"General Early was whirling up the valley." But the music of that 
cheering strain set the whole Nation dancing with joy. Within that 
compact frame, ever beats a tender heart. Back of that straightfor- 
ward manner, is the gentleness of a true gentleman, and accompanying 
all the irresistible daring of the impetuous soldier, is the modesty of 
a woman. 

See how he climbed up to the supreme height of his position by 
real merit alone. Comparatively unknown to begin with, never ask- 
ing for a single promotion, simply being faithful to the duty of the 
hour, he rose step by step, from a Lieutenancy to be Captain and 
Chief .Quartermaster of the Army of the South- West. Then, ap- 
pointed Colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry, he joined the regi- 
ment in the morning, and before evening made lively work for the 
enemy by burning his trains, winning in less than 30 days, a Briga- 
dier's star, and before a year had expired, wearing two stars on each 
shoulder; Stone River, Chicamauga, and Missionary Ridge, each 
having attested the inestimable worth and invincible valor of the 
man. Then came the renowned Shenandoah campaign and the 
successes about Petersburg, the telegram of President Lincoln — 
''Have just heard of your splendid victory. God bless you all, officers 
and men" — then the star in the regular service. 

Then the victory from the jaws of defeat at Cedar Creek, and the 
fervent tribute of praise by Lincoln worthy the thanks of the Nation, 
and the notice that the two stars in the regular service were to be 
hereafter worn, "for personal gallantry, military skill, and just confi- 
dence in courage and jiatriotism of your troops, displayed by you at 



24 

Cedar River, whereby under the blessings of Providence, your routed 
army was reorganized, a great national disaster avoided, and a bril- 
liant victory achieved over the rebels for the third time in pitched 
battle within 30 days." 

Then the resolution of thanks by Congress and the legislatures 
of several of the States, ''for achieving a series of victories which 
will shme resplendent in our military annals, with a luster as endur- 
ing as history," and the telegram from General Grant to Stanton, an- 
nouncing that a salute of 100 guns had been fired from each of the 
armies around Petersburg in honor of the victory, closing with the 
eulogistic words "turning what bid fair to be a disaster, into a glorious 
victory stamps Sheridan, what I have always thought of him, one 
of the ablest of Generals." 

General Sheridan has been justly termed the grandest cavalry 
officer of his age, and unsurpassed as a leader of mounted men in 
any age. But it is difficult to say whether he excels more as a com- 
mander of cavalry or of infantry. The cavalry made him a Brigadier 
General in the volunteer service at Booneville; then the infantry a 
Major General at Stone River. The cavalry and infantry at the bat- 
tle of Opequan, near Winchester, made him a Brigadier General in 
the regular army, and the cavalry, infantry and artillery at Cedar 
Creek, commonly known as the Battle of Winchester, made him a 
Major General in the regular army. AVhat a rare combination of 
qualities such a General must possess to be preeminently successful as 
Chief Quartermaster and Chief Commissary of the Army of the 
South- West at Pea Ridge, as a cavalry commander in Mississippi with 
the giand old Army of the Tennessee; as an infantry commander in 
Kentucky and Tennessee, with the gallant Army of the Cumberland;, 
as a cavaliy commander in Virginia with the splendid Army of the 
Potomac; as an infantry and cavalry commander in the Valley of the 
Shenandoah, and as cavalry and infantry commander in the last 
campaign against Lee. 

Pindar in one of his odes speaks of those who reach the immor- 
tal fields by enduring these purgations. 

Missionary Ridge, Cedar Creek, Five Forks, and then Appomat^ 
tox, and immortality for Sheridan. 

Looking at him as a faithful student at West Point, a Brevet sec- 



ond Lieutenant, second Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, Captain, Colo- 
nel, Brigadier General, and Major General in the volunteer service; 
Brigadier General and Major General in the regular army; Lieuten- 
ant General, and soon to be General, we may well say in the language 
of another, as applied to one bearing the same name: — 

"Nature made but one such man 
And broke the die in moulding Sheridan." 



Bishop FalloM's' address, as also those of Professor Swing ami General 
White, was frequently interrupted by applause, sometimes ending in cheers. 
At the conclusion of his address, the band played the "Star Spangled Banner." 

Professor Lyman then gave a spirited recitation of " Sheridan's Ride," 
and the assembly dispersed while the bugles sounded "taps." 



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